Lake George Commission advances Stream Protection rules

The Lake George Park Commissiontook its first public bite today of a political hot potato _ how to protect the lake’s legendary waters from a toxic stew formed by a building boom in Warren County above the lake’s southwest shore.

This remaking of the lake’s steep hillsides with high-end homes is flushing a rising tide of silt, fertilizers, road salt and pesticides into streams that feed the lake, which clouds the gin-clear waters and fuels algae blooms that rob the lake of oxygen, which in turn makes it less hospitable to fish and other aquatic life.

Commission members voted to continue working on protection rules for some 150 streams that feed the lake. Issued earlier this month, the proposal would limit tree-cutting with 100 feet of streams.

Given that these streams cut through a dozen different towns along the lake, the commission also has released a study showing how many parcelson a town-by-town basis might contain a stream zone. (Just for those who don’t know … Click on the word “parcels” in the previous sentence to download the report….)

A public hearing on the proposal is tentatively set for Feb. 24. The commission hopes to vote final rules into place by April.